To Save our Legacy

“Ohhh, so that’s why she made a mess of the kitchen.”

“What mess?” Fired Sunny with a sharp voice, narrowing her eyes with growing suspicion.

A guilty smile found its way to my lips at her accusation. Seeking to avoid the flames, I simply waved my hands to the earth pony walking at my side, and feigned ignorance. “Nothing, nothing. Forget I said anything. You were saying?”

She dragged her suspicious leer until a few sweat drops began falling from my brow, my cheeks burning as they held my most innocent smile. Seemingly satisfied with making me work a sweat, she relented and resumed telling me about her talk with Izzy. Both of us found ourselves at the back of our small entourage, currently walking back towards Fluttershy’s cottage where Zipp had been carrying out a hooves-deep investigation.

As of that morning, two full weeks had passed since the Pegasus Crystal had been stolen, with the magic glitching getting slowly but steadily worse with each passing day. We were starting to become desperate, the flow of potential leads having slowed down to a trickle, making my old friend’s cottage our most promising, and currently, sole lead to find Discord.

Poor Zipp had run herself ragged in her search for clues, her detective side pushing her to spend unhealthy amounts of time scouting practically every centimeter of the cottage and the surrounding area, while back home she was spending most of her time training or just watching the surveillance cameras that still were operational back in the ruins of Canterlot Castle until her bloodshot eyes treated to fall from their sockets. She paid no heed to our warnings and continued pushing herself. All of us, especially her sister, were deeply worried over her health, but the speedy-minded pegasus was having none of it.

Today, we all decided to tag along and lend her a hand, or hoof if you will, with her search, hoping six heads would think better than one.

It was during the trek after the carriage had dropped us off that Sunny and I slowed our pace a bit to remain behind the rest of the ponies. She wanted to speak to me about something that had been bothering her for the past few days. That something was Izzy’s intermittent, yet strange behavior towards her, and the current overall situation in general. I had also noticed her change of mood, as subtle as it might have been.

She was still bubbly and full of energy around me, but her mood seemed to cool down when it came to other ponies, or just the moments she was by herself. I chalked it up to stress and frustration with our lack of progress, but with Sunny bringing this issue to me, I began to think it was more than that.

“… So, yeah. After we spent the day together, showcasing the new smoothie cart and the new mixes, we had a little heart to heart…”

“She still feels left out, right?”

Sunny could only return a sad nod. “Yeah. We’re really close. I think of her as my best friend and she has been since the moment I met her during our first adventure. I truly hadn’t realized she was feeling like that. It’s just… there’re so many things happening at once, a-and my new powers and all the things I can do with them!” She looked down at the ground and sighed, her ears drooping. “I’ve been a terrible friend to her…”

I brushed my hand over her droopy ears, encouraging her to raise her sad gaze from the dirt path under us to look at me.

“Come on, Sunny, I don’t think it’s as bad as you’re making this out to be. I’ve seen you talk to her and you seem to always fix things with her. You can’t expect friendship to be easy, nor should you expect a friend to never make mistakes. It happens, and you guys made amends in the end, that’s just how it is. Believe me, many years living with Twilight got the whole ‘friendship is magic’ drilled into my head, so I know plenty about it.”

My words seemed to cheer her up a bit, her scowl morphing into a tiny smile. “Heh, I can see that. Yeah, I… I talked to her, and we’re fine. Well, I think she’s not one-hundred-percent there yet, so… ugh! I just want this Discord thing to be over so I can really focus on this, it’s driving me nuts to see her like this!”

“That means you care, Tangerine.” I gave her a final reassuring squeeze before returning my gaze back to the road. It wouldn’t be long until we reached our destination. “I’ll also have a talk with her when this is over. She doesn’t seem to have any problems with me, but it would be awful to see you guys falling out.”

Sunny returned a grateful smile. “Of course she doesn’t have a problem with you. She likes you a lot, you know?”

“I can clearly see that, Sunny. I mean, I AM very likeable.” I answered with a smug tone and a bump to my chest, receiving a tail-slap on my butt from the mare walking beside me.

We both released a small chuckle at our antics and continued walking in comfortable silence. At least, comfortable for her. I wasn’t really looking forward to returning to our destination. Too many memories, and painful memories at that…

‘Focus, Alexander! Focus!’

Before my mind had the chance to delve back into the pit, Hitch called out that we had arrived, the dense, but welcomely not gloomy forest soon giving way to the beautiful sea of green and flowers that surrounded the old cottage. A gorgeous sight soiled by a bunch of yellow numbered markers and barrier tape spread around the surrounding area, marking whatever Zipp had considered important evidence. Flowers, loose branches, even the dry feces of some random critter. None were spared from the yellow tape.

I personally didn't see anything of relevance in the marked places, but a detective I was not, so I decided to just roll with it.

“Rally on ponies,” Pipp motioned us from the closed door. “You need to be prepared for the worst.”

My friends and I gave her an incredulous look. “Discord's about to destroy a Unity Crystal, ridding Equestria of magic for the rest of eternity! I think our threshold for catastrophe is at an all-time high already.” Sunny answered, returning the pegasus’ warning with a deadpan leer.

Pipp rolled her eyes and sighed. “You brought this on yourselves…” She dejectedly muttered while knocking twice on the door, pushing it open without waiting for an answer.

The sight that awaited us inside was indeed haunting. The same numbered markers and barrier tape littered through the surrounding meadow like a spiderweb welcomed us spread all over the once-cozy, and previously moderately-ordered, cottage. In the middle of the catastrophe stood a positively ragged-looking pegasus. With bags under her bloodshot eyes and sporting a disheveled mane and tail, the tired mind of Zipp needed a few moments to recognize us standing there taking in her disheveled self. Her exhausted features responded by morphing from exhausted to deeply alarmed.

“HOLD UP!!” She ordered with flared wings, making us stop dead in our tracks, a hoof frantically shooing us away. “This is an active scene, if you touch ANYTHING, you’ll contaminate evidence, and we’ll never find Discord or save the magic!”

The state of the about-to-pass-out pegasus shocked me to my core. I knew she was pushing herself too far, but this was worse than I had expected. She stood on jelly legs, like she was about to collapse from exhaustion.

My shock was replaced by frustration. “Mother of Faust, Zipp! I told you not to push it!”

I took a few steps closer to her, ignoring her insistent warnings. Her current state of mind worried me more than the possibility of contaminating whatever evidence she thought there might be on the rotten floorboards that were marked with the numbers 67 and 71.

Seventy-one marks. How in the name of Harmony can you find and tag seventy-two possible leads in such a small place?

I took a kneel in front of her and addressed her with a serious expression, Zipp’s eyes barely being able to focus on my own as they danced unfocused on their sockets.

“Zipp.”

“Mmmmmmm…”

“Zipp, you’re seconds away from fainting.”

“Mmmmmmtold you, I’m fiiine...” The alabaster pegasus announced, yet her swaying body spoke a different message.

“No, you’re not, sis.” Pipp butted in from behind me, the rest of the ponies sharing her concern. “You’ve barely eaten or slept these past few days, and you spend ALL day here! What ELSE is there here for you to find, Zipp? This is going too far!”

“Uggh. The last thing I need is for you to start acting like Mom! I’m telling you guys, I’m fine!” Zipp brushed her sister off with a scoff, tapping her hoof impatiently against the rotten boards, waiting for us to leave her to return to her investigation.

‘You’ve got a serious competitor in the hardhead department here, AJ.’

Pipp trotted over to my side and, pressing her side against Zipp’s, gave her sister a sympathetic rub of her mane.

“And ooooobviously we can see that.” She claimed with no small amount of sarcasm. “You look as peaceful as a pegasus in a mud bath.”

“Or an orchid in a sun-soaked field.” Added Izzy.

“O-Or a bear surrounded by honey pots.” Continued Hitch.

“… Or a pony who hasn’t eaten or slept in several days and is on the brink of collapse.” Finished Sunny, eliciting a surprised glare from our friends.

“Oh, come on, don’t act like we weren’t all thinking it!”

I placed a calming hand on Sunny’s back, blowing her fumes away. “She’s right, we should all pitch in, guys. The more of us there are, the better our chances are of finding something our local detective might have missed… no offense Zipp, you’re brilliant.”

Poor Zipp couldn't even respond. Instead, she was rubbing her aching head with her eyes scrunched closed, a clear symptom of having been working non-stop for several days, against my numerous warnings. I had encountered ponies in a similar state in the past. If something got into their heads that they had to complete, sometimes they would go simply too far to achieve it. I could admire such dedication, but this was borderline ridiculous.

Already expecting this situation to arise since we had left Maretime Bay, I reached into my back pocket and passed the aching pegasus a tablet of one of the pony’s versions of aspirin. Opening the casing with her muzzle, Zipp flashed me a thankful smile and promptly swallowed it without the help of any water. I stiffly returned the bottle of water I was on the way to extracting from my backpack, somewhat impressed by the performance.

‘Damn, that wasn’t a small pill.’

I didn't miss Hitch's very attentive eyes ogling the alabaster pegasus’ show either. I wonder what might’ve been running though that pretty little head of his…

Shaking her head in an attempt to wake herself further, Zipp addressed the group. “Discord possibly researched how to destroy the crystal in this very room. There’s gotta be something here that can point to his location, I’m sure of it.”

The ponies spread out in search of anything worth checking over, following the countless marks Zipp had left all over the place, which she hadn't had the time to go over completely. I stood in place for a few seconds, brushing my chin while musing over how Discord could have conducted research here of all places. With both Canterlot and Twilight’s libraries at his disposal, he had chosen to do research here. Apart from the sentimental value of the place, I really didn’t see what was so valuable about doing it here.

‘It’s Discord who we’re dealing with. Of course nothing makes sense where he’s involved.’

I deduced that the only place where he could have obtained any valuable information was Fluttershy’s small bookshelf, which remained tucked into the far wall, just under the stairs. I turned on the balls of my feet and began walking towards it. I was rejoiced to see that quick-thinking Sunny had reached the same conclusion as I had, since she was already there, looking over the few books that still adorned the shelves.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked the earth pony with a proud smile.

She unglued her eyes from the worn-out pages to return the smile. “Well… if Discord was researching… wouldn’t he search here? I mean, I doubt he would be able to get answers from the empty walls and rotten carpets.”

Having overheard us, Zipp trotted towards us, looking better now that the medicine was taking effect.

“I’ve read through every single sentence on every single page of every single book here… and I promise you that there’s nothing helpful in them.”

Sunny wasn’t deterred by Zipp’s sharp conclusion, a thoughtful hoof rubbing her chin while she continued inspecting the collection of Daring Do novels that were spread throughout the lower shelf.

“Hmmmm… maybe it’s about the one book that’s missing.” She pointed toward the space left behind by one of the books that was indeed missing from the collection.

“The ninth book. ‘Daring Do and the Curse of the Basaltic Caves’, if I’m not mistaken.” I recited from memory.

Sunny gave me a curious look, no doubt wondering how I knew that.

“A certain rainbow-maned pegasus was VERY INSISTENT that I had to read them all. And read them all I did. They’re very good.” I answered nonchalantly.

‘Especially the one I appear in, but the ponies don’t need to know that.’

“Uggh!! How did I miss that!” Our resident detective cursed to the heavens with an angry snort.

Seeing that she was about to bump her head against the wooden shelf in frustration, I reached with my hand, cushioning her hit. I didn’t want her to get another headache.

“There's, like, zero information about the basaltic caves online.” We turned towards Pipp’s voice to catch the pegasus furiously tapping on her phone, having also overheard us.

“Duh! That’s because nopony’s been there in, like, hundreds of years.” Izzy clarified for us.

I turned towards her. “You know anything about it? I don’t remember exactly what cave system Daring Do was referring to in her book.”

The unicorn took a pensive pose. “Weeell, according to my uncle Fizzy, the caves are full of these REALLY dangerous lava creeks that are so hot that they can melt an entire castle, or a ginormous stone sculpture.”

‘... Ah, I remember now, they shouldn’t be too far from Maretime Bay, two thirds of a day on foot perhaps. Less if we’re carried by a pegasi-pulled chariot to the entrance of the canyon. Not safe to fly past that point, I’d wager.’

Sunny’s blood drained from her face upon hearing this. With a shaky voice, she muttered. “Or maybe even a Unity Crystal…”

“Oh yeah, they could definitely destroy a Unity Crystal!” Izzy celebrated with a cheerful voice, only for her features to sink and her spring to fade a second later when it clicked in her mind. “Oh…”

Sunny was quick to react and turned to face the rest of the group, whose expressions started to mirror her own. “Okay! What we are absolutely NOT going to do right now, is panic!”

Following her lead, making an effort to remain cool and collected, I voiced my thoughts on the matter. “The crystals were chosen for their special composition to store and withhold enormous amounts of magic. I wasn’t aware they possessed defensive spells before… well before I tried something. I guess the same spells might block Discord’s attempts to mess with them. But I don’t think they’d stop the extreme temperatures from the lava rivers from melting it, and neither will its crystalline composition. He could very well destroy it there. Heh, it's just like in ‘The Lord of the Rings’...” I knew it wasn't the best time to joke, but I couldn't help it.

Of course, the ponies didn’t get the reference, flashing me a confused look before I closed the subject with “It’s a human thing. I’ll show you when the fate of magic isn’t hanging from a thread.”

Sunny shook her head and refocused on the matter at hand. “We know Discord took the book with him. So it probably has information about how to survive in the caves.”

“Way ahead of you, Sunny girl. If we need a copy, I can get us a copy!”

Right after her bold claim, Pipp began to furiously type on her phone, leaving the cottage a moment later to talk with somepony. The rest of us were left to wait until help arrived.

“Great!” Hitch addressed the group, “While Pipp’s busy with that, the rest of us should pack up and get ready to move out. We can return to Maretime Bay to gather what we need, and tomorrow morning we’ll get an early start!”

“Y-You mean… You want to go into the caves?” Izzy shakily asked the sheriff with visual concern.

“Well, of course we have to, Izzy.” I answered for him. “How do you want us to stop Discord if we don’t?”

“W-Well, my uncle Fizzy once threw a flying star back to its home solar system using his bare hooves, and even HE was afraid to go to the basaltic caves.”

I could only chuckle at her affirmation. “He did?”

Izzy answered with a vigorous nod. “Heh, he sounds like a cool guy.” I mused.

“Oh, he definitely is!”

Sunny cleared her throat to gain our attention. “Daring Do was able to survive the caves. I’m sure that the book will be able to tell us how.”

“But Daring Do’s a trained explorer…” Pointed Zipp with a pensive frown.

“Guys! Come on!” Hitch intruded. “If we don’t even try, who’s going to save magic?”

“... There are worse things than losing magic…”

We all turned at the sole unicorn of the group, surprised by the suddenness of words. “What do you mean, Izzy?” I wondered, not fully understanding what she meant by it.

She shunned a bit under our questioning leers. “I-It’s just… we’ve lived without magic before. And losing magic won’t change ponykind coming together or any of the friendships we’ve made. Isn’t that what matters?”

I released a tired sigh at her words. She was not exactly wrong, but there was a lot she wasn't taking into consideration. “Izzy, it’s not that simple.”

“Discord’s words DID stick with you…” Sunny sounded shocked, pointing an accusing hoof at Izzy.

“I’m not saying I want to get rid of magic, Sunny! I love magic!”

She powered up her horn and surrounded herself with her magic, levitating her body upside down over the wooden floor. An impressive feat for a, to a degree, ‘green horn’. “I wouldn’t be able to do THIS without magic!”

She reoriented herself and carefully levitated herself back to the floor, turning to address all with a shake of her head to lose her ample mane to the side. “But even good things like magic can come with some not-so-great things too. Discord said he wanted to get rid of magic because he didn’t want anypony feeling lesser than others because of their power.”

“He also said that’s how you felt when we flew off without you and Alex near Canterlot.” Zipp meddled with her own accusation.

Izzy lowered her head at Zipp’s accusing frown. With a low voice, she murmured. “Maaaaybe I felt that way a tiny, little, atom-sized bit…”

“Ugh!” Sunny looked bothered by her words. “Izzy, we’ve talked about this already! I told you, flying above those trees was about getting a better perspective of the forest! We were in a huuuge hurry!”

“But… it didn’t actually help us find the Gate of the Ancients. All it did was separate us and leave Alex and Izzy on their own.” Zipp heatedly countered, changing her position from her previous statement.

“That’s not the point, Zipp.” I was starting to get a little heated myself. They couldn't really understand it for all it was. “Everypony uses their natural gifts to better contribute to the community. You guys can fly, then you go and fly, and those who don’t, can remain back and take on another role. That doesn’t make anypony any less useful, much less inferior!”

“But, Alex! The difference is just too big. I can’t play flyball with the girls and I never will be able to because I lack wings, just as they will never be able to cast a spell. And I’ve felt left behind on several occasions because of it. Without magic, this wouldn’t be an issue at all! We all would have to step on equal ground.”

“You’re right, Izzy. Discord just wants to make sure everypony is on equal hoofing.” Added Zipp, her mind set into supporting Izzy.

“By getting rid of what makes us special!” Shouted Sunny at the white pegasus, a stubborn puff leaving her nostrils.

“Guys!” I called loudly before they could begin seriously butting heads, earning their attention. “Magic does make us different, especially me. Each race is granted its own set of strengths and weaknesses. But, the issue is NOT about how it can segregate you guys depending on the things you can and can’t do with your born abilities. What, you feel left out because you can’t play flyball, Izzy? Then why don’t you guys come up with a game you ALL can play together? For Faust’s sake, it already exists, it’s called Buckball! You know? The game where a member of each race makes up the team? Where each member has a role that complements the others? There’s no reason to feel less than anypony else just because you don’t possess the same abilities they do!”

“Are you seriously telling me an earth pony would not feel lesser when they couldn’t fly? Or, or cast spells?” Zipp remained hesitant to accept my point.

“Oh, so where does that leave me, Zipp? Mmh? Are you saying if it weren’t for my gauntlets, I would be useless? That I should just accept I’m below everypony when I don’t even have an earth pony’s strength and affinity with nature?”

“Yes!” She wailed, immediately catching herself. “I-I mean, NO! Ugh!” She furiously rubbed her temples. “Isn’t this why you came up with the ISIT thingy? So you could get a piece of the cake and be able to do what everypony else could?”

Far from hitting the target. “No, Zipp! That’s not why…” I clasped my head with a hand, closing my eyes and exhaling sharply. “I WAS deeply jealous of my friends for being able to use their respective abilities while I was just left with my wits and my sense of self-preservation to keep me going forward. I DID feel inferior and overwhelmed by it when I first encountered them. But I realized there really wasn’t a reason for me to feel like that when I truly understood how magic works between ponies and their environment. It complements each other, and it allows everypony to excel at their own thing! Not just common things like the ability to fly or cast spells or grow crops. Everypony has their own unique magic, everypony can fit in a role in which they can excel at. ISIT was conceived as a way to use technology to broaden the uses of magic and make day-to-today things easier for everycreature, not just ponies.”

I took a step forward and kneeled in front of her, wetting my lips in search of a different approach to let her understand what my vision consisted of.

“Zipp, you love flying, right? I can see it in your eyes every time you rocket in the air. And that only happens because you have magic that allows your wings to work.” Literally in the case of pegasi, since their wingspan-to-body-mass ratio would’ve never allowed them to catch enough air to lift themselves from the ground without the aid of magic, as she had painfully learned while growing up.

“But, you also have your own unique brand of magic, which makes you a better flier than most other pegasi. It’s in your cutie mark!... I think?” I stole a furtive glance at her flank, bridging the connection with Rainbow’s, although that didn't necessarily mean they meant the same thing.

“Does that automatically make other pegasi less than you?” I asked gravely, to which she quickly shook her head no. “Does that make Izzy less than you because she can’t fly at all?” Another shake, her pupils narrowing with each question. “It is true that she will never soar the skies with you by the means of her own abilities. Yes, it is a bummer. But, Zipp, what you are doing is just blaming magic for the things you can or can't do instead of looking for an alternative. An alternative,Zipp, that’s what the ISIT program is about. That’s what these gauntlets are about.” I flashed my left gauntlet at her muzzle, lighting the LIMstone on its core with magic for her to see.

“B-But…”

“It’s about not blaming our differences, Zipp; but overcoming them.” I pushed through her stuttering.

“I’ll tell you guys again.” I switched to address the entire group. “Magic or no magic, I still strongly believe Equestria would have fallen either way, because the problem ran deeper than just what brand of magic belonged to each race and whatnot. The pony is who shuns the other, not the magic. I come from a place where your skin color or birthplace is reason enough to promote hate and division between people. Here, it’s just more of the same! With magic back, you have the chance to become something greater, together. To unite once again, to build Equestria anew. And NO amount of technology is going to change that.”

Zipp’s wings twitched nervously at her sides, the pegasus’ point shattered, leaving her unsure of what to think anymore. “I-I… I don’t know, Alex. It’s just…”

“I know what type of equality Discord is after.” I cut the lost pegasus with a reassuring hand on her chin, brushing a thumb over her cheek. “Others have tried before, and I can tell you that it didn’t end well. Just blaming magic and doing nothing about it is what makes Equestria fall, Zipp. When the pony, Zipp, the PONY looks down on somepony else just for being different… that’s when society comes crashing down. You’re blaming a tool, Zipp. A tool which everypony can use in different ways, but all those ways can join together to create something greater.”

I raised again on my feet and turned to peer at the wide-eyed ponies. It was time to open myself a bit more to them, even if I would've still preferred to keep most to myself.

“Guys, my mission here and Discord’s are exactly the same, in a way. To ensure the safety and prosperity of your blooming civilization. However, our starting points are complete opposites. He blames magic and he believes its absence will keep you safe and happy, where nopony thinks themselves better than anypony else, just as it was back then. I blame the ponies for acting like they did, for allowing their baseless hate and narcissism to breach the relations between the tribes and obliterate the status quo. I want to free magic from the crystals’ grasp, so situations like this one never happen again, and make the ponies UNDERSTAND once and for all that their differences are to be celebrated, that their gifts are to be shared in unity, where everypony does their part, where they use their unique talents to further society as a whole, as they have done for thousands of years before. Free magic, not subject to the whims of a bunch of spell-engraved rocks. Harmony should never be enforced like that… It goes against everything it’s supposed to stand up for. Even without unity, magic shouldn’t be denied to anypony like that. It’s just too important, too necessary to ensure that…”

“HELLOOOOOOOOOOO?!! I REQUIRE YOUR DIVIDED ATTENTION BE COMPLETELY UNDIVIDED!!!!”

It’s safe to say all of us jumped from Pipp’s booming call. Sometime during our discussion, she had returned, with a copy of the book, and two mares in tow who regarded us with impossibly-wide smiles anycreature would label as ‘extreme fangirling’.

“How in Equestria did you get this so quickly?” Asked a surprised Sunny, not wasting a second to grab the book from Pipp’s hooves.

“I had a little help.” She smugly answered with a tilt of her head towards the two ponies. “Say hello to my Pippsqueaks!”

“B-But, we’re half a day away from…” My question was promptly interrupted by the two mares who, between screams and loud cheering, rushed in to go pony by pony, giving them enthusiastic greetings and retelling each of my friend’s roles on the search, like they were our biggest fans out of a sudden.

“The location of this place was supposed to be confidential, Pipp, remember?” I whispered with a grumble to the pegasus, who patiently waited for her fans to finish their rant, leisurely tapping away at her phone.

“And leave them out of all the fun and excitement? I think not!”

“Do you even know their names?”

Pipp shrugged, not taking her sight from the screen.“Well, the lavender one’s username is @lav3rose and the yellow one’s @shineprncss_43, that’s all I can tell you.”

Pipp was bathed under my most deadpannest gaze. “... Are you being serious?”

“What? I have THOUSANDS of followers. Do you really expect me to know ALL of them by name?” She flared a dismissive wing at me. “As much as I would like to, it’s just impossible. Besides, it doesn’t really matter if they’re gonna end up helping us with the case anyway, m’kay?”

“Pipp, you have to realize…” I was about to lightly scold her, but was unable to finish my sentence as the two overexcited mares made me their next target of their fangirling.

“Alexander! The mysterious human who appeared not a month ago and has been helping you guys crack the case. He’s very handsome, don’t you think?” The pale-yellow furred one noted with a giggle to her friend, eliciting a similar reaction and a pair of coy eyes undressing me from her partner.

Once again, before I could get a word out, they rushed towards Sunny, leaving me with a slight blush and the words at the tip of my tongue.

Their excitement met a swift end when Sunny's turn came. The two mares, noticing the awkwardness of the situation and the lack of the usual friendly responde, which was Sunny’s trademark, were quick to realize the tension that permeated the room.

Sunny, quickly noticing the change in the fan’s demeanor, rushed to deliver some damage control. “Uh… We just… had a minor disagreement. But what friends don’t have those? Airing our issues is healthy!”

The two ponies didn’t look convinced. Not in the slightest.

“I don't think anypony would diagnose this as healthy.” Spoke the lavender-furred one.

“Seems like what you all need is to talk it out” Finished the other one.

“WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!!” Sunny startled us out of our respective kinds of shoes with a frustrated scream, a vein bulging in her forehead. She rudely stormed off towards the door and motioned for everypony to leave the cottage so we could be on our way back to the brighthouse.

With a conflict raging on her mind, Sunny tried to rein her growing anger inside and, with the most forced smile I've ever seen on a pony, also ‘invited’ the two Pippsqueaks to leave the premises. “Ah, but there’s truly no need to worry. Very soon, we’ll be back to the well-oiled, completely in-sync team we’ve always been. Come on ponies, we’ve already wasted enough time as it is!”

Sharing a concerned look, we all began following her lead without another word, the faces on everypony telling me this discussion was far from over.

‘But Sunny’s right, first things first. I’ll be sure to make them see reason once we’re done.’

“Ups! Sorry, Zipp. I’ll be more careful.”

I was completely lost in thought, not really paying attention to the road ahead which made me accidentally bump against Zipp when her gait had lessened for a second to rake in some of the deserted landscape around us.

The road we were walking was very narrow, only allowing two ponies to walk side-by-side. To our right, the canyon wall stretched into the sky. On our left, a staggering fall of several dozen meters, enough to shatter our poor bones like toothpicks should we slip.

So… yeah, I should really have been paying more attention. I flashed her my most apologetic smile, earning a brief glare before she had resumed her way.

I tried my best. I really did! But my mind kept drifting to yesterday’s events. More specifically, the heated argument my friends and I had regarding Discord’s intentions while in Fluttershy’s cottage. After a hasty retreat back to the brighthouse, we had spent the rest of the day getting ready for the trip, none of us really saying much to each, lost in our preparations and thoughts. Tempers were still a bit high, and none of us had the energy to argue further. We unanimously decided to just let it be for the time being. Still, it didn’t help with the awkward atmosphere that followed us to bed.

I vividly remember Alex’s image when we all went to bed after a tiring afternoon of packing things. He looked positively exhausted, both in body and spirit, and had worn a scowl that didn’t fit him in the slightest. Judging from how he was acting, it looked to me this wasn’t the first time he'd had this argument. At least that’s what I thought at the moment, he could be hard to read sometimes.

I wanted to believe his reasoning, and Sunny’s own point too. I really, really wanted to… but the lingering burn of being repeatedly left behind, and the knowledge that many ponies could very well be feeling the exact same thing… just wouldn’t stop tormenting me. All my life, I’ve been a weirdo among the unicorns. No magic or lack of magic was involved when they would choose to hang out with other ponies instead of me. When magic came back, and the tribes began to unite again after so long, I had hoped things would finally change, that we would be able to leave all that nonsense behind us and finally move on.

But now… I wasn’t so sure anymore.

‘I didn’t need any magic to meet Sunny and the rest. We didn’t need any magic to accomplish what we did… But it WAS magic that brought Alex to us, what everypony else is using to build a better world, just as he said… ugggh, I just want this to all be over so I can take a moment and finally get my thoughts in order!!’

“Eyes on the road, Sunny.” I heard Hitch call my best friend, who hadn’t released the book since we’d left for the Basaltic Caves early this morning.

“I’m sorry, but these instructions are really confusing,” Sunny answered without taking her eyes off the book. Thankfully Alex, who was walking by her side, made sure she woulnd’t trip. The fall would be nasty, and with magic glitching so frequently there was no guarantee she would be able to bring forth her alicorn form to save her own tail.

“You’ve got time until we reach the caves, Sunny. Better make sure you actually make it there.” Zipp pinched while quickening her trot to catch up with the front group.

“The instructions aren’t for the caves, Zipp. They’re for Boulder Grit Canyon. You know, the canyon we’re currently trotting through? Daring Do didn’t write anything about it being dangerous, but there are huge boulders that separate the road. If we take the wrong way, we could get very lost.”

“So, why don’t I take a quick flight up and get an aerial view? I’m sure I can find us the way from up there.” Zipp proposed, her wings twitching, screaming for some exercise. That mare sure loved her flying.

‘... I wish I could fly too…’

Her idea made me wince a little, bringing back the memories of our trip to Canterlot. I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of separating again. Thankfully, Alex intervened before I could think of anything to counter her.

“Absolutely not, Zipp. I told you about the strong wind currents generated by the extreme temperatures of the lava rivers. They’re more than enough to catch you by surprise and smash you against the canyon’s side… and, with magic glitching so much on top of it, we can’t take the risk. So we’re hoofing it.”

Zipp scoffed with an annoyed huff. “You’re just saying that.”

“Yes, Zipp. The seven-hundred-plus-year-old time traveler who knows this country better than you know your own castle says so!” The human snarled, making Zipp flinch and recoil. “I know you love to fly, but this is not the time to be reckless.”

He’d been in a bad mood since yesterday. He hadn’t truly snapped at anypony or anything too harsh, but you could tell, especially by how quiet he was when he always loved to pinpoint some interesting facts or tidbits of our surroundings when something familiar to him came by. And also, the scowl which never fully left his flat-muzzled features. I hadn’t even heard him hum one of his songs from his world this morning while preparing breakfast. I didn’t like seeing him like this. He just felt so cold…

“Don’t worry about it, Zipp,” Sunny flipped the book to show us the open pages. “Daring Do left us specific instructions for navigating through the boulders.” She pointed a hoof at the somewhat faded inscriptions.

I stepped closer to get a better look. The pages depicted a hoof-drawn topographic map with a few notes indicating directions written over it.

“Turn right, then left, then right, right, right, left~” I repeated the instructions with a small song. It was catchy and would help me remember them. Also, it helped calm down my nerves.

“Are you absolutely sure it was Boulder Grit Canyon that Daring Do was talking about, Sunny?” Hitch turned to look at the road ahead, pointing at it with his hoof. “Because we’ve been walking through Boulder Grit Canyon for the last half hour, and I can’t see any boulders or turns!”

He was right. We’d just been walking over the road that bordered the canyon since the lush vegetation gave way to our arid surroundings, and the only turns we’d had to take were when we had to avoid some small obstacles that blocked the road. But, for the most part, it had been a straight path.

Sunny, now becoming even more nervous at Hitch’s observation, returned to peer over the map in a dose of panic. “T-That doesn’t make any sense. The whole road is supposed to be one big confusing maze…. Alex?” She turned to ask a desperate plea to our human friend.

Our tall friend simply shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what to tell you, Sunny. I know about this place, but I’ve never really walked through it. Its lava rivers are a byproduct of the tectonic activity which runs from the middle of the Celestial Sea, kind of a mirror of the volcanic system that splits the Dragonlands in two, only much smaller. I don’t recall any other canyons that would fit the description. Daring Do was known for modifying her stories a bit when she wrote them on paper, to make them more… ‘adventurous’, as she called it. That the hero of the story had to take a straight path with nothing really dangerous happening would be kinda boring for the readers, wouldn't you say?”

“You knew Daring Do?” I asked Alex, surprised that he had made acquaintances with the famous adventurer in pony.

A fond smile, a rare sight these days, brightened his features for a moment. “Heh, yeah. She got me and my friends in a mess or two. A great mare, although she wasn’t really a big fan of teamwork back when we first met. I guess we managed to change her mind after a few adventures alongside her.”

“Woah!” I was genuinely impressed. Sometimes it was easy to forget he came from the forgotten past, a past which belonged to many of Equestria’s greatest figures. In a sense, I guessed he also was one of those great individuals, even if there was almost no info about him in the few historical records that still prevailed from that age. Taking into account the even fewer ponies who even bothered to check them out, it wasn’t really surprising that the vast majority of knowledge about the old times had been forgotten.

It’s not like the unicorns needed to remember the actual reason why they should be hating the other tribes…

We decided to not give it much importance and continued on our way. We spent the next hour or so following the same dusty road, bordering the canyon’s east side on its way south. None of us said much during that time, preferring to just trot in silence and focus on the road, each of us lost in our own musings.

I was brought out of my daydream when I bumped against Alex’s back, the lead ponies having suddenly stopped in front of him. He released a small yelp at being poked with my horn, flashing me a small glare while rubbing his aching back.

“S-Sorry…” I apologized in a low voice, my gaze lowering and my ears drooping against my scalp under his glare.

“This is just great!” I could hear Pipp shouting from the front group. “You decided to warn us about Boulder Grit Canyon, but not about the CREAKY OLD BRIDGE WITH THE ONE-THOUSAND-METER DROP?!!”

“I told you, it’s perfectly safe,” Sunny answered with a huff, ignoring Pipp’s flames.

It didn’t look safe to me. The old rope bridge was barely hanging from its rotten ropes and cracked wooden planks. Some of them were even missing! I felt a shudder snaking all over my body at the sight of it. Heights didn’t really bother me, but the prospect of falling down from such a height… it’s not like I had wings to keep me aloft, right?

‘Can you make wings out of magic like Sunny’s? Hmmm…’

“Oh, wait…” Sunny suddenly added after checking over another page, “It actually does say there was an accident back in…”

Hitch didn’t let her finish, taking the book away from her hooves and saving it inside his saddlebag. “How about we put the book away for now, hm? Just follow my lead and whatever you do…”

His apparent bravado died a sorry death when he turned to face the chasm over which the bridge hung. “…. J-Just, don’t look down...”

“I’ll take the rear,” Alex said, taking a few steps back to allow us to follow after Hitch. I went behind Sunny, with Pipp and Alex being the last to cross. I continued humming the little song I had come up with in an attempt to soothe my nerves and still my quaking legs.

“Izzy!” Sunny, having also woken up with her leff hoof, glared at me over her shoulder. “We really need to concentrate, right now!!”

I shrugged apologetically. “I’ve never been good at concentrating. There are always too many fun things around, and how can you just pick one thing? It’s impossible!”

Yeah, that little trait of mine had gotten me in trouble a few times in the past, but I really just couldn’t help it.

“Well, your singing is making it difficult for the rest of us to concentrate!” She answered with an annoyed tone, resuming her focus on the treacherous path ahead.

“B-But it helps take my mind off of the scary bridge.”

She turned once again to flash me a proper glare. “Your mind should be on the bridge! Focused!!”

A small whine escaped my lips from her snapping. She sounded so mad at me.

Before I could mutter another word, Hitch called to us from the front.

“Can we PLEASE stop arguing back theeeeEEEEERE!!”

One of the rotten planks had snapped under his hooves. In a blink, Hitch began falling into the abyss, his flailing legs dropping the book in search of something to grab on for dear life. My pegasi friends tried unsuccessfully getting in the air to chase after him, their wings not responding to their commands no matter how hard they pumped. Sunny’s alicorn form was the same, the glitching magic rendering my friends flightless and hornless.

In the corner of my eye, I caught Alex balancing himself from the bridge's edge and powering his gauntlets, one of them sputtering a few sparks while the other lit up in a blue glow, a levitation field blinking in and out of existence around Hitch, catching him in a precarious hold .

“IZZY! A little help here!”

Shaking the surprise away, I quickly lit my horn and added my glitching magic to his own. With a huge effort, we managed to levitate Hitch back up to the bridge, with Zipp quickly grabbing him and pulling him the rest of the way up when he was in range.

“Ah… ah… agh… I really need to… ah… learn teleportation…”

That sounded like a useful skill to have. I made a mental note to ask him about it later at a better time.

“Agh… come on guys! Let's get a move on before the whole bridge collapses!”

Hearing his call, the other ponies quickly returned to their hooves and proceeded to finish crossing the bridge, taking extra caution in their steps. I too rose back onto shaky legs, adrenaline still coursing through my veins. Alex stepped closer to me and helped me up, brushing his hand over my mane and ears.

“Great job back there, Izzy. You did very, very well.” He congratulated me with a tiny smile.

A happy smile of my own and a small blush made their way up my muzzle. It felt great to see the Alex I so much liked back, even for just a little bit. I answered him with a nuzzle on his tummy.

“It looks like our magic is glitching more by the second,” Zipp spoke from the front of the group, helping a dizzy-looking Hitch who had to grab the rope railing with his other hoof to keep himself from falling.

“Ugh… and we kind of lost the Daring Do book…” The sheriff muttered, sounding like he was about to throw up.

“So we’ll be entering the caves with barely any powers and no road map? That's just great!” Sunny cursed our rotten luck to the heavens.

“There’s still time to call in the Pippsqueaks for help, Sunny,” Pipp suggested. It amazed me how she could still be grabbing her phone and checking over whatever was currently happening on her feed like it was nothing. I knew she liked to record everything and alway keep abreast of the latest, but this was just ridiculous!

Her comment won a fuming glare from Sunny, the pegasus quickly changing her mind at the sight of a positively mad earth pony.

“Yeah, no. Why would we need the Pippsqueaks when we’re clearly such a well-oiled, completely in-sync team, right?” She droned under her voice in a snarky manner.

She really didn’t have to rub salt in the wound like that, but it was true we hadn’t been the most efficient team since our… disagreement. Our nerves were on edge, and I could understand us being jumpy, not that I liked it one bit…

Leaving the treacherous bridge behind us, thank hoofness, we continued on the road towards the caves. Just as before, we kept trotting without saying much, poor Hitch finally gathering his bearings after a few minutes and taking the lead with the help of Zipp. Alex chose to remain at the back of the group; I would have teased him about enjoying the view, but I wasn’t really feeling it at the moment.

A few minutes later, when the reek of sulfur was beginning to turn offensive to the snout, we arrived in front of a cave entrance, a huge boulder with a few weird marks around it blocking the entrance. It reminded me of a clock somehow… but with strange symbols instead of numbers.

“The Basaltic Caves. We finally made it!” Sunny cheered at the sight of the blocked entrance, losing a few kilos of stress while at it. Of course, we had the problem of the ginormous rock blocking our access. We all spread out, searching for a way to get in. Well, the ponies and Alex did, I found a little water pool near the entrance and distracted myself making silly faces and laughing at my reflection.

Don’t judge me, I needed to cool off with a healthy dose of silliness.

A few grunts of effort got me to leave the goofy reflection of the unicorn on the pond and peer back at the group. Hitch was attempting to draw from his earth pony strength and force his way in by moving the giant boulder aside… without any success, obviously.

“According to Daring Do, the only way through is to solve some sort of code.” Sunny announced from memory.

“That’s great, Sunny. What’s the code?”

My friend’s answer was a small nervous laugh. “Heh, well… I, um… I didn’t make it that far in the book…”

Pipp’s reply was to groan and continue recording with her phone. I couldn’t make heads nor tails of the symbols carved into the boulder. We could always try and hoof it, but considering our current lucky streak, it would take us forever to crack it without a clue, if we didn't trigger some mechanism that would drop it over our noggins or something. That’d be very daring Do-ish to happen.

My friends began to discuss possible solutions to the puzzle. I wasn’t really paying attention, my mind once again returning to yesterday’s events. I didn’t even realize I had resumed humming that little song, lost in thought, until an annoyed warning from Sunny brought me back to the waking world.

“Izzy! What did I tell you about singing while we’re trying to concentrate!”

I was about to protest when Zipp suddenly interrupted us. “No! Wait… keep singing.”

I complied and continued humming the little song while Zipp got into ‘detective mode’. A moment later, a light bulb over Alex’s head lit up. “Ah, I see what you’re thinking, Zipp.”

With renewed confidence, Zipp strode towards the blocked entrance. “Perhaps… maybe the directions in Izzy’s singing aren’t for Boulder Grit Canyon? This rock dial seems to be able to turn left and right. What if her singing is the code?”

“It’s worth a shot.” Offered Hitch. He and Zipp stood on opposite sides of the boulder, both grabbing the dial and turning it towards the directions the song listed.

Soon enough, a loud *clank* was heard from within the cave, accompanied by the giant boulder dislodging itself from the entrance, small streams of dust falling from the edges with the musty, warm air rushing out from inside the cave.

“You Equestrians and your silly riddles… Okay, Hitch, on three.”

Alex and Hitch grabbed the ridges of the giant boulder and, on the count of three, began rolling it over the side. With labored breaths, they managed to make it roll until the entrance became clear enough, all of us releasing our own cheers at having solved the riddle.

Now livelier, we all began to file into the cave, squinting our eyes to get used to the darkness. Sadly, an all-too-familiar laugh welcomed us the moment we had all stepped inside, bringing the mood back to the ground.

Leisurely lying on his side, Discord rested over a tall ledge, a few critters resting around him. On his eagle-like claw rested the Pegasus Crystal, the draconequus rolling it around his claws as if it were a toy.

“Ho ho ho! Well done, ponies! That code was a real head-scratcher. But look at us, able to figure it out by working as a team and blah blah blah.” He mocked us with a bored roll of his eyes. As in, a ‘roll’ of his eyes in their sockets. Wierd…

We didn't waste a breath and got into battle positions, my horn and Alex’s gauntlets charging up with magical energy.

“Get that Unity Crystal!!” Sunny commanded from our side. It seemed she wasn’t able to get her alicorn powers working once again. It was up to us to recover the crystal.

“Discord! That’s enough fucking around!” Alex warned Discord, the draconequus just answering with a bored yawn.

“Bah, spare me your pitiful negotiating.” I saw him snap his fingers and, without any warning, all of us found ourselves inside a metal cage, outside once again as we hanged by four ropes over the imposing canyon. A quick peek down told me the fall would most likely be fatal if we were to be dropped.

A snapping of claws and the racking of claws over the metal top of the cage made us realize that Discord had teleported over it. He stretched his long neck to look at us upside down with a mocking grin.

“Don’t look at me with those woebegone eyes. I’m doing this for you! For all of you! Yes, I can see you back there, Alex. I’m actually surprised you managed to stick around with them for so long. I would have expected you to have run away already. It’s your speciality, after all.” He finished with a devilish narrowing of his sickly-yellow eyes.

If he had looked mad before, Alex was positively fuming now. “I didn’t sacrifice everything I loved to travel here only for you of all creatures to screw things up permanently, Discord!! You know as well as I do what utter stupidity you're about to commit!!”

“Ha! ‘Travel here’. That’s one way to put it, I’m sure.” Discord brushed his anger off like a summer breeze.

He changed his position over the cage to regard Alex from his side of our enclosement, Discord’s neck stretching impossibly long to twist his head and look at him straight up while remaining on the top. “One day you’ll thank me for creating true, everlasting equality among all ponykind. Just as it should have been in the past. Things wouldn’t have gotten out of hoof otherwise.”

“Do I have to remind you what happened the last time somepony sought to bring ‘equality’ to all ponykind, hm?” Alex grabbed the metal bars and snarled at Discord. “I vividly remember it not going that well for her.”

“You don’t vividly remember anything. You weren’t even there to begin with!” Discord bit back, his own brand of snarl pursing his lips, making his sole fang stick out. “No no no, I’m not planning to step up into power like Starlight once tried. I only want to ensure peace once and for all! You should be helping me, Empyrean. Isn’t that supposed to be your job?”

‘Emp-what?’

“For fucks sake, Discord!!” Alex was having none of it, becoming redder the angrier he got until flames threatened to puff out of his nostrils. “Blaming magic is stupid! The ponies are the ONLY ones responsible for what happened. It was their moroninc beliefs and petty excuses that brought about this problem!! How can you blame the very thing that makes them all unique and live in harmony as the source of the division that broke the peace?! It’s just borderline stupid, you fuckhead!!”

Discord remained impassive to Alex's heated insults. With a lazy scratch of his goatee, he held his ground. “Magic is dangerous, Alexander. It was magic that brought pain and misery to Equestria until it couldn’t stand up for itself. I know it became a great deal to you when you figured out how to tap into it, but that’s no excuse to shift the blame so that you might keep enjoying it. That’s not very princely of you, wouldn’t you agree?” He finished with a smug smile and a taunting hike of his eyebrows.

Alex had had enough and exploded. “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO GIVE ME MORALITY LESSONS AFTER YOU GOT ME K-”

“Bah, I’m getting tired of your ranting.” Discord teleported back to the canyon's edge, leaving the word hanging from Alex’s mouth as he peered down at us almost sadly. “At least you can indulge in these fleeting moments of magic, trapped with the ones you hold dear. You’re very welcome.”

And with that, he was gone. My friends began desperately screaming for him to return. But I didn’t join them, my focus set entirely on my human friend. His hands grasped the metal bars so hard his knuckles were turning white from the effort. There was such rage, such fury in his eyes. It honestly scared me to see him raging like a rabid animal.

But, believe it or not, that wasn’t what was bothering me the most.

‘After he got him… what?’